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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23469694">Trauma</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TunaTrash/pseuds/TunaTrash'>TunaTrash</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Infinity Train</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Hurt/Comfort, Metal Blood..?, Mild Swearing, Nightmares, Other, PTSD, Trauma, i know this is a common thing people do but i wanted to give it a try</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:09:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,767</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23469694</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TunaTrash/pseuds/TunaTrash</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lake begins to have nightmares after escaping The Train. They try to deny it when Jesse wants to help, but they aren’t getting off that easily.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Can be seen as romantic or platonic - Relationship, Jesslake, Lake/Jesse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>57</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Trauma</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Yep, another Infinity Train story, next time I do one of these I wanna try and do one with Tulip or at least have Tulip be one of the main characters along with Jesse and Lake. Who knows though.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Jesse, for the last time, I’m fine.” Lake said as they took another bite of the lasagna Mrs. Cosay has prepared. “You look so tired though!” Jesse pressed. Lake didn’t look at him, but they could feel Jesse’s worried gaze. “Maybe I’m just tired of your constant worrying.” They replied shortly.</p>
<p>In reality, Lake was a little more exhausted than they wanted to let on.</p>
<p>Way more exhausted.</p>
<p>Lake had been skipping out on most hours of sleep that their body needed to be properly awake, but Lake didn’t want to sleep. It had begun to feel more like sleep was a punishment more so than staying awake.</p>
<p>At night, their dreams were plagued by nightmares of The Train, The Flecs, and The Apex. One night Jesse had heard them fall out of bed during one of these nightmares after it had woken them up. When he had come in, worrying if they were okay, Lake had only got angry at him and said that they were fine.</p>
<p>They were not fine.</p>
<p>Lake had been off The Train for almost three weeks now and had been having these nightmares for nearly two. At this point, Lake rarely let themselves sleep and had only gotten a good 3 hours of sleep over the past two days. Lake told themselves that it was better than none.</p>
<p>“But Lake-“ Jesse began before getting cut off as Lake flicked him in the forehead. “Stop. Worrying.” They said as they stood up and began to walk over to the sink to clean the extra bits of foof off their dish until they stumbled, nearly tripping over their own feet while they weren’t paying attention.</p>
<p>‘Damnit’ Lake thought when they caught Jesse’s worried gaze again. “I’m fine Jesse!” They snapped washing the plate.</p>
<p>Lake looked over their shoulder at the clock that hung on the wall behind them and pointed their thumb at it, “Your swim practice starts in 10 minutes, better get a move on.”</p>
<p>Jesse jumped in surprise and looked at the clock before stumbling out of his chair and grabbing his jacket off the couch. He started to run for the door, but after he had it half opened, he paused and looked back at Lake. Lake waved their hand, “Go! I thought your coach said he wouldn’t stand for another time you came to practice late!”</p>
<p>He sighed in defeat before hurrying out the door, shutting it behind him. Lake rubbed their eyes, trying to get rid the exhaustion that filled their body before shoving their hands in their pockets, looking around the house for something to do before spotting Jesse’s mother cleaning up Jesse’s plate that he had left behind. “Is there anything I can help with?” Lake asked as they walked up to her, the muscles in their legs felt stiff and tired, but they ignored them.</p>
<p>Mrs. Cosay smiled, “I think I have it handled.” She said kindly, “Jesse is right though, you do look tired. I’m not going to force you to sleep, but maybe just try to relax a bit. Read a book or watch a show.” She suggested.</p>
<p>Lake opened their mouth to oppose, but decided against it in the end. They had learned it was no use arguing against a woman like Mrs. Cosay’s wishes when it came to what she thought was best for the children in her house. That included Lake.</p>
<p>They walked into the living room and sat on the couch, grabbing the remote and flicking on the television. They began to flip through Netflix, but quickly realized that there wasn’t anything there that Lake really felt like watching before turning it off again.</p>
<p>They looked over at the clock again, Jesse wouldn’t be home for at least an hour.</p>
<p>Lake grabbed a book off the table that Jesse had suggested would be fun to read and that he had liked it when he read it. It was a good sized chapter book and Lake thought it was a good idea to keep them busy.</p>
<p>As Lake read the book, they found that it was a lot harder than it should be. They constantly had to reread pages to find that their mind was wandering as they read it or they just had no idea what was going on. Lake didn’t know how long they had been reading by the time they got to the fifth chapter before shutting the book and dropping it back on the table, leaning back with a groan of frustration as they rubbed their eyes tiredly, trying to clear their fuzzy mind.</p>
<p>“I’m heading out to get some fresh air!” Lake called to Mrs. Cosay as they stood up, unable to stay in the house any longer as they felt their exhaustion beginning to hit them like a brick.</p>
<p>Lake shut the door behind them before they could hear Mrs. Cosay’s response. The sky was clear and cloudless and the breeze carried little bits of grass and leaves in it. Lake closed their eyes as they walked, just enjoying the peacefulness.</p>
<p>The sudden horn of a train seemed to ruin it all.</p>
<p>Lake’s whole body stiffened as their eyes snapped open. They found that they were no longer in Arizona. Everything around them was made out of chrome as far as the eye could see and the only shape that poked out of the ground were pyramids and cubes also made of chrome.</p>
<p>“No-“ Lake choked out, their heart began to pound in their chest as they began to struggle to breathe. They spun around rapidly, trying to find the Cosay home, trying to find the lake, trying to find an exit. They began to run, “Jesse!” They yelled as loud as they could, panic beginning to rise in their chest as they began to run faster, “Jesse!”</p>
<p>They stumbled to a stop when they felt what seemed to be water lapping at their feet. When they looked down though, it certainly wasn’t water. At their feet was instead the silvery liquid that The Flecs had instead of blood.</p>
<p>Lake let out a sharp gasp and they pulled away, their whole body growing ridged as something grabbed their arm. They turned around sharply to find themself looking into Mace’s eyes, his gaze furious and vengeful.</p>
<p>“Get the hell away from me!” Lake screamed pulling their arm out of Mace’s grip and shoving him into the chrome blood, the mirror office immediately disappearing under the surface.</p>
<p>They stumbled back in horror before turning around and running as fast as they could, stumbling over their own feet until they finally tripped and hit the ground with a hard thump. Lake immediately tried to get back up, but they couldn’t breathe and couldn’t seem to get themself to move as they heard foot steps running up from behind them.</p>
<p>Lake crouched on their knees and covered their head with their hands, their fingers pressing against the top of their head as their whole body trembled. As the steps grew closer and closer to them, they squeezed their eyes shut as tears rolled down their cheeks.</p>
<p>“Lake!”</p>
<p>They opened their eyes, their vision blurry with tears. Lake rubbed their eyes as their breathe hitched in their throat.</p>
<p>They were back in Arizona.</p>
<p>“Lake!” Jesse repeated, quieter than the first time, but still just as pressing. He was crouching in front of them with his hands on both their shoulders. He was sopping wet from head to toes. Clothes and all.</p>
<p>“Jesse-“ Lake choked out, their voice weak. They looked around a little realizing that they were still outside, but a much farther distance from the house than Lake was before everything... Changed, “What- What the hell happened?”</p>
<p>Jesse slowly took his hands off their shoulders, shivering slightly in the breeze, “I mean, I’m not 100% sure myself, but I got out of swim practice early and while I was walking home I heard your yelling...” He said softly, seeing how shaken up Lake was, “I ran and found you running around the clearing around the lake, when I got to you I grabbed your arm and before I could say something you screamed at me and shoved me into the lake.” Jesse explained, speeding up as he saw Lake’s face twist with guilt and realization. “B-But it wasn’t very deep so I got up fairly quickly and ran after you until you fell over and I was able to catch up.” He finished quickly and after a moment said, “I think the real question is what happened with you though...”</p>
<p>Lake bit their lip and looked at their hands, clenching them into fists.</p>
<p>“You can’t keep saying you’re fine when you’re clearly not... I need you to tell me what is going on” Jesse said firmly, “I’m not going to act like I can’t hear you crying at night or keeping yourself awake almost all night.”</p>
<p>“I’ve just been having nightmares-“ Lake finally said, “I know it‘a stupid- Everyone has nightmares and they live with them and I try too as well, but it just- They’re always changing and getting worse and I just want them to stop-“ They admitted with a sigh as they sat back with their hands in their lap.</p>
<p>Jesse looked at them sadly before shifting so he was sitting next to them, giving all his attention to them as they continued.</p>
<p>“I don’t even know what just happened, it felt like a panic attack but everything I saw was different than it actually was.” They said, meeting Jesse’s eyes, “I only pushed you into the lake because I thought you were Mace and I thought I was back in The Chrome Car.”</p>
<p>Jesse looked at his best friend thoughtfully for a moment before smiling, “It sounds like something some of my mom’s hot chocolate and a good sleep can’t fix!” He said with a big grin.</p>
<p>Lake frowned a little, unsure and almost annoyed, “Jesse, I don’t think that’ll fix anything, plus I’ll just have more nightmares if I sleep.”</p>
<p>His grin grew a little smallerC but other than that, it didn’t falter, “Well... Maybe it’d help if you fell asleep non the couch or something and you weren’t alone in your room.” He suggested, “Like, we could stay up and watch shows until you fall asleep. That always worked for me!”</p>
<p>Lake thought about it, but the exhaustion that hit then like a wave after pushing their body to the limit with the short amount of energy they had plus just the over all lack of sleep had them nodding in agreement.</p>
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